For almost 2 years I’ve been treated to book possibilities 5 days a week through a great service called dearreader.com. I first read about it in Oprah and quickly subscribed. Each day, Monday through Friday, I get a chapter of a book to read – I have signed up for non-fiction, fiction, business, and new releases – so by the end of the week I can read the opening 5 chapters of the chosen book and decide if it’s worthy of being on my reading list or more deserving of the DELETE key. Should I choose the former, I can even put it on reserve at my local library via a quick link.
Unfortunately budget cuts at my local library are taking away this awesome service and my last selections arrive this week. I’m not sure if I can continue without a local library connection or not – if I can’t then it’s back to my other reliable sources for good reads – friends, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Oprah and best of all, browsing the library or a book store.
I’ll miss dearreader.com because I’ve read some books I might not have considered otherwise – but as a budget director, I understand the fact that sometimes cuts have to be made. Speaking of, I have lots of budget meetings tomorrow – better go sharpen my axe! And of course, read a little before I go to bed.
I have been using http://www.paperbackswap.com for a couple years now. When I was preparing to move this last time, I counted (embarrassingly) over 200 paperback and mass market books that had filled my personal “library”. I listed them all on the site and promptly recycled half of them in the first month! You get a book credit for each one you send out.